The global high-altitude infrastructure which makes possible our modern digital, wireless world with services such as mobile phones, internet and GPS heavily utilizes space satellites in orbit. Satellites can observe large sections of the Earth at one time and instantaneously transmit signals over vast distances and across the planet, circumventing mountains and tall buildings. The satellite industry is worth over $200 billion dollars a year and is growing rapidly.
Constructing satellites and their payloads can cost millions of dollars. They are made extremely durable and resilient to, inter alia, survive launch force. Further, they are currently designed and built with the mindset of “launch it and forget about it”, because there is no cost-effective way to retrieve a satellite or do any physical maintenance or upgrades.
Launching a satellite is even more expensive: $100 to $300 million dollars each. Historically this was only performed by governments. Now, many private organizations and ambitious entrepreneurs are starting private space companies with the hope of creating improvement, but the costs are still huge.
The satellite business is also getting dangerous. Space orbit is getting crowded, with dozens of countries currently operating over 1,200 satellites (not to mention abandoned ones) and over 60 thousand pieces of space debris. Further, with no international agreement on orbital paths, collisions happen, and they can be devastating. Astronauts on the International Space Station frequently have to go into their “life boats” during impacts.